CHENNAI’s PUBLIC TOILET

CHALLEGE INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH

APRIL 20, 2013

What is the role of public toilets?

• Link to sustainable, inclusive city

• Gender equity

• Public health

• Public convenience

What are the problems in Chennai?

• Absolute gap

• Distribution

• Assets and Services

• Monitoring

Absolute gap

• Norm (1 seat per 60 persons) versus Reality (1 seat per 1,056 persons)

• Male versus female

Statistics from TNSCB for undeclared slums in Chennai

Absolute gap (2)

• Toilets by ward based on observations

▫ Data is incorrect

▫ No toilets where they are needed

RTI data from zones in old CoC

Distribution

• Spatial – physical location

▫ Easy to identify core group of regular users

▫ Usually, they would not have private toilets

• Temporal – based on time of day

▫ Floating population based on activities, transit

Spatial distribution

Map based on statistics from TNSCB for undeclared slums in Chennai

Temporal distribution

There is a need but planning does not address them:

• Informal workers

• Street vendors

• Taxi drivers

• Autorickshaw drivers

• Transport hubs

• Informal markets

• Institutional areas

• Ward 176 • 7 of 11 toilets

did not have at least one of four criteria we deem critical for functionality of a toilet

Assets and Services

Assets (2)

• Dilapidated

Assets (3)

• Misused

Services

• Blocked drains

• Insufficient water

• Insufficient bathing and washing areas

▫ Critical for users who do not have private toilets and bathing and washing areas

Monitoring

• No clear lines of accountability ▫ Roles and relationships between caretakers,

councillors and zone officers unclear • No incentive structure for maintenance ▫ Person/agency responsible for providing service and

person/agency responsible for monitoring the service are the same

• Poor grievance mechanism ▫ Not centralised, not public ▫ Several formats i.e post, email, SMS, phone, in person ▫ Status of problem (open or closed) differs for

government and citizen

What needs to be done?

• Distribution both spatial and temporal

• Maintenance

• Monitoring

But CoC faces constraints Land

Inter-department coordination

Organisation and capacity

Some key features of tender for

new toilets

• CoC will specify roads for toilet locations

• Toilet maintenance will be covered by advertising

fees

• CoC will be responsible for monitoring private

contractors

• CoC official to submit monthly and quarterly

inspection reports and advertisement audits to

Corporation

Problems with tender

• No information on potential toilet locations

• Toilets may not match needs

▫ Locations

In order to be profitable for the contractor, they may be located only on arterial roads and not in slums

▫ Facilities

No provision for bathing and washing areas

• Monitoring 2000 toilets may be a challenge for CoC

• No grievance redressal system

Potential problems with tender (2)

• How can CoC ensure that Contractor use advertisement fee for maintenance?

▫ No punitive measures for poor maintenance

• Is advertising a viable solution?

▫ Contractors may not have capacity for maintenance or the inclination to address public sanitation

▫ Advertising on public toilets will be viable only if a strict ban on hoardings is enforced e.g. New Delhi

Recommendations

• For existing toilets

▫ Standardise caretaker position in all existing toilets

▫ Improve accountability of caretakers

▫ Convert public toilets to community toilets

Recommendations (2)

• For tender

▫ Avoid moral hazard problem

Make CoC responsible for sale of advertisement space on new toilets

Transfer funds to contractor subject to maintenance reports and audits

▫ Strengthen relationship between principal and agent

Separate contracts for installation and maintenance

What we can do

• Identify needs to identify location

▫ Map and survey existing public toilets

▫ Integrate data from other departments and agencies e.g MTC for bus depots and terminals

• Create grievance redressal system

▫ Centralised online complaint system - public

• Create alliance to monitor maintenance

▫ Zone-level alliance to audit and report to Steering Committee

VINAYA PADMANABHAN

91766.43539

Time Session Discussion Points

3:30-4:00

Presentation of

Transparent

Chennai’s research

Problems in Chennai

Problems with the CoC data

CoC’s tender

4:00-5:00 Discussions and

experience sharing

Problems with sanitation facilities

How to evaluate sanitation needs

5:00-5:45

The way forward –

Discussions and

experience sharing

Strategies to advocate for sanitation

facilities

Strategy for provision and

management

Tea and Snacks